In battle against the coronavirus, villagers said, the havan would create a “medicinal atmosphere and reduces the bacterial count”. (Representational Image)

“The havan will purify the air which will help in keeping the coronavirus away from the village,” said former village sarpanch of Gorakhpur village, Jagga Jaildar. On Sunday, residents of the village took out a ‘havan yatra’ — havan with chanting of mantras in a tractor-trolley as it went around each street of the village, aiming to purify the air.

In battle against the coronavirus, villagers said, the havan would create a “medicinal atmosphere and reduces the bacterial count”. They also believe the smoke from the havan-kund acts as “pesticide” for the surrounding area. But most importantly, the former sarpanch pointed out that norms of social distancing were adhered to during the havan exercise.

On the importance of havan, an Arya Samaj activist from the village, Kaptan Singh Arya, said, “We believe that havan purifies the air and enhance the quantity of oxygen. The havan ghee is considered helpful in checking the problem of cold too.” The villagers performed the havan on a day when The Indian Council of Medical Research said there was no evidence of COVID -19 being an airborne infection.

Meanwhile, to halt the spread of coronavirus, the villagers have not only banned entry of the outsiders to the village during the lockdown period but have also sanitised the village by spraying in different parts of the locality with disinfectants at least five times.

“We have selected a team of 190 to enforce the lockdown in our village. We have installed nakas at seven entry points of the village to restrict entry of anybody to the village to halt spread of infections from any person who might have recent contact with a patient of coronavirus. We change the duties of volunteers at the nakkas after every six hours,” said Jaildar.

The former sarpanch said the villagers have already advised their relatives not to visit the village during the lockdown period. “If there is any emergency to visit the village, then we advise the person concerned to get him medically examined at neighbouring Agroha Medical College before entering the village,” said Jaildar.

Meanwhile, the administration has exempted the shops of agriculture-related machines and their parts from the lockdown keeping in view the upcoming harvesting season. Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner Ravi Prakash Gupta said the shopkeepers have been asked to follow lockdown norms during the exemption period otherwise the shops would be got closed without any notices.